Welcome

News:

College of Education Professor Teresa Harris has earned Fulbright funding to teach early childhood education at a university and another school in South Africa from January to June, 2010. Earlier this summer, she led a group of eight JMU graduate students to South Africa to study attitudes and practices in that country. Education, she says, ensures people have access to important resources such as good nutrition, health care and employment opportunities, and it empowers them "to take a place in society and to have a voice." Harris regularly takes groups of JMU education students to Africa, and the Fulbright is vital to her teaching and scholarship.

Events:

During the month of July, thirty-five rising college freshmen will be in residence at JMU as part of the Bridging the Valley Workshop. Designed to better prepare students majoring in STEM programs, the workshop combines rigorous study in math and science with service learning opportunities. In particular, students will help clean up Black’s Run as a way to explore environmental change. Participants are drawn from the freshmen classes at James Madison University, Bridgewater College, Eastern Mennonite University and Blue Ridge Community College and receive instruction from faculty at all four institutions. For more info contact Dr. Bob Kolvoord, a professor of integrated science and technology and educational technologies and co-director of the Center for STEM Education and Outreach at JMU.

Awareness

Learning activities that cultivate Awareness of issues related to civic life include but are not limited to:

  • Going on an Alternative Spring break trip
  • Taking a 100- or 200-level class such as GPOSC225; American Government or GSOCI110: Social issues in a Global Context
  • Participating in a service-learning project for the first time
  • Volunteering for a cause you want to learn about
  • Joining a campus organization, such as College Democrats, College Republicans, E.A.R.T.H., Orange Band, Relay for Life, or a service club or even some singing groups!
These activities typically have stated learning outcomes such as: the ability to define specific terms and concepts, to recognize diverse perspectives, to demonstrate improved critical thinking skills, or to summarize information.


Model of Civic Engagement

In this model, a student is led by his CURIOSITY to participate in activities that foster a new AWARENESS of a civic issue. Upon completion of the activity and with guided reflection on its outcomes, the student gains UNDERSTANDING. This outcome leads her into the next category of activities: those designed to advance ENLIGHTENMENT, or, a deeper appreciation of the issue and its myriad facets. As a result of an enlightening activity, a student is moved to ACTION, a state which leads him to undertake activities of yet another sort—the type that promote ENGAGEMENT, or, what may be termed commitment. At the end of these experiences, the student has been personally transformed. That transformation piques CURIOSITY about a new issue and thus the cycle continues. This model also recognizes that many students come to campus already AWARE of or ENLIGHTENED about a particular issue. For them, other entry points into the cycle are possible and additional outcomes are probable.